We loaded up the bandit corpses into the old wooden wagon as we could see it want’s going anywhere without some major repairs, then we set the whole thing on fire, which some some strange reason seemed to make Twitchy very happy. I must keep an eye on my fellow gnome, I can see why they call him twitchy.
Had an interesting night, most of the time there was nothing much happening, but during my watch Raelyn came streaming out of the tent like she was running from something and spent a few hours sitting by the fire. Didn’t say much but it seemed like she hadn’t been able to sleep. Eventually exhaustion drove her back into the tent, but in the morning she still looked terrible.
Anyway we loaded up the horses and rode back to Oleg’s to report in. They were happy to hear the bandits had been dealt with but Svetlana was upset about her ring. We told her we’d keep looking for it. In celebration of our victory she told us she was going to make Oleg’s favourite stew, but to do that she needed us to fetch some moon radishes. She gave us directions to a patch of the special radishes about 16 miles south of the outpost. Raelyn decided to come clean with us and told us of her reoccurring nightmare each night since the encounter with the zombie at Nettles Crossing. The creature kept appearing in her dreams and delivering a message to drown the stag lord in the river. Same thing I could hear the zombie saying when we battled it. Well that explained why the poor lass looked so worn and tired.
Oleg had some new visitors so we did the rounds and introduced ourselves. The first was a Mercenery Captain – Kesten Garess who’d been sent by the Sword Lords to guard the Outpost. I guess better late than never. Even though we’d already dealt with the bulk of the bandits, there were still others out there so more swords standing with us couldn’t hurt. Kesten also gave us a Wanted notice for Falgrim Sneeg, a mercenary Kesten worked with months ago who robbed the group and fled into the Greenbelt to become a bandit. Kesten hopes to catch him alive and return him to Restov for punishment.
Next we met up with a travelling cleric of Erastil named Jhod Kacken. Jhod was chasing the legend of the lost temple of the elk and would like us to keep an eye out for any sign of the temple during our exploration of the Greenbelt.
There was a hunter as well called Vekkel Nenzen, so I struck up a conversation with him, remenising about past hunts ad creatures we had stalked. Vekkel told me of Tuskgutter, a famous wild boar than had taken his leg. He asked if during our travels, our group might catch wind of Tuskgutter, to kill the beast and bring him it’s hide.
After restocking our supplies we headed back out to explore more of the Greenbelt and see what other dangers might be lurking close to the Outpost. Even though we had a stock of trail rations, I preferred to live off the land and where I could I provided for the rest of the group as well. Sometimes I was successful, but at others we had to dip into the trail rations. Of course Twitchy had his own supply of luxury items so while we tucked into hard tack and beef jerky; he dined on exotic breads and cheeses. I couldn’t see the appeal myself and I am sure he regretted it next morning at the latrine pit, but each to his own I say.
The next day we came across a pair of frogmen and before anyone could say “What are you up to?” Twitchy had fired off a magical bolt of energy at one of the Boggarts. Raelyn looked ropeable and was staring daggers at Twitchy, but there was nothing for it, so we readied weapons and met the angry froggies as they came at us with morningstars. The fight was a short one and soon the Boggarts were down. Raelyn reprimanded Twitchy for his “Shoot first” attitude but I couldn’t see the message sinking in. I felt bad as Stampy was starting to get a reputation as a killer in the eyes of my crew, but I kept trying to tell them he was well trained for combat. Oh well, I don’t know what I can do to reassure them he isn’t dangerous, well only dangerous on command.
Later we came across a clearing covered in piles of bones from a variety of different creatures, some humanoid as well. I found some tracks but the footprints seemed very light and I had trouble determining the type of creature that had left them. We spread out to search and that was when all hell broke loose. A trapdoor spider burst up from under the leaf litter and attacked Khevlar. I had dismounted to search the clearing so I whistled for Stampy giving him the attack signal and we both moved in on the spider. I missed it with my longspear, staying back out of the spider’s reach as I had seen it bite Khevlar and he looked a little green from the poison. Stampy missed with his tusks, but brought down his front feet and stomped the spider into jelly. It didn’t help his reputation in the eyes of the party, but surely they saw he only attacked when I signalled.
That night we camped in the clearing and I cooked up a massive feast of spider legs which was mouth-watering. Last time I had spider that good was from my dear old mum, and this meal brought back some pleasant memories of my childhood. But once again the night passed poorly for Raelyn and each day she looked worse and worse for getting no sleep. We couldn’t think of any way to get rid of the nightmares so decided to talk to Jhod upon returning to Oleg’s to see if the cleric could think of any solution.
The exploration went well when we stumbled upon a gold mine not far from the Trading post. We didn’t have any mining equipment and couldn’t tell if the mine was tapped out or not, but we noted it down for future investigation. That night we went to bed happy but were soon woken from our slumber when a pack of wolves attacked. The battle went badly as an exhausted Raelyn as savaged by the wolves. Twitchy was also chewed up and spat out. Khelvar and myself (riding Stampy) worked out way through the pack and when we were down to the last wolf, it lost it’s appetite, turned tail and fled into the night. We let it go, and as Khevlar started working on the injured pair, Stampy and I took watch and kept guard.
The next morning we found the Radish patch but I will save that story for next time.